Trekking through the trail to Oregon

The Oregon Trail game was invented in 1971 and it was created to educate people about the hardships that people endured during the 19th century. The game is a lot harder than it sounds you have to be able to survive.

Photo courtesy of Andrew Cooke

The Oregon Trail game was invented in 1971 and it was created to educate people about the hardships that people endured during the 19th century. The game is a lot harder than it sounds you have to be able to survive.

Andrew Cooke, Scoop Editor

The Oregon Trail game is all about planning ahead, managing money and using resources well. The game starts with having a certain amount of money and you have to buy the necessities so your crew can survive the trip.
The Oregon Trail was a 2200 mile trail that helped people travel to the west looking for opportunity. People endured disease, mal-nutrition, and physical exhaustion from the trail.
Just as you thought you were about to hit Oregon, you pull up the map and discover that instead of going east you were going south.
“I didn’t do well, but it was a fun experience and I would do it again. I should have prepared better, and I needed more food supplies,” said junior Michael Rogers.
The Oregon Trail video game was invented in 1971 to educate people about the hardships endured in the 19th century pioneer life. The player assumes the role of leading the wagon out of Independence, Missouri to Willamette Valley, Oregon.
The Oregon Trail game is a lot harder than it sounds, maybe even harder than the actual Oregon Trail itself. In comparison to the actual Oregon Trail the game was very realistic, buying food was a must and hunting to survive was what kept you in the game.
You also had to hunt if your food supply ran out and if you couldn’t kill anything you had to go without food until you came to another town.
“I did not like the game because it took so long and you will die of dysentery,” said junior Jasmine Roy.
Not only do you have to make this 2,200-mile trip you can die of a horrible inflammation of the intestines, causing diarrhea with blood, known as dysentery. Once you die of dysentery or any type of disease it automatically stops the game and you have the choice to restart or give up.
People underestimate how influential the Oregon Trail was because it helped encourage the American Ideals of Manifest Destiny. Also the migrants knew how hard of an accomplishment it was to try and go through the whole Oregon Trail.
Also, missionaries traveled on the Oregon Trail to try and spread a new religion to the newly founded west.
“I learned that people that went on the Oregon Trial in the 1800s had a lot of hardships to go through and many families died on the treacherous path,” said Roy.
Some people did have experience playing the game and had success with it. You had to deal with crossing rivers and lakes, while some of your crew was in poor health.
“The Oregon Trail is a lot harder than people will give it credit for; I think I did pretty well. Other people have probably played the game before,” said junior Dhietmar Cruz.
There was one winner, junior Sam Rodgers, who was able to defeat a class of about 30. He was able to score the highest in the whole entire class.
“No one was able to beat me, I liked the game and it was educational. It teaches you about the Oregon Trail, but it was a fun game to play. I would recommend the game to people who are uneducated about the Oregon Trail,” said junior Sam Rogers.